Growth puts Holliston medical firm in new Franklin HQ
Jamie Chasteen, senior product manager, Cold Chain Technologies.
Cold Chain Technologies is in the process of moving into its new world headquarters in Franklin, a facility that gives the company 100,000 additional square feet for manufacturing and other operations. The move and expansion, according to senior project manager Jamie Chasteen, are a byproduct of being “the right company with the right people and the right product at the right time.”
The product in question is the Koolit Advanced PCM Gel, a solid, uniform pack that provides temperature control and protection for drugs and vaccines. It’s made from solid material with break-resistant packaging, alleviating leakage concerns for customers.
The ISO 9001:2008 certified company designs, tests and manufactures thermal packaging solutions for the life science industry. Chasteen spoke about the company’s move within Central Massachusetts, its commitment to the life science industry, and future expansion plans.
Describe your role at CCT.
I’m basically responsible for staying in touch with the market: future trends, challenges [customers] face in distribution, regulations they need to adhere to. I’m responsible for developing products and services to meet the client’s needs.
Does your new gel have applications outside of the life science industry?
It’s being sold into multiple segments within life sciences -- for research, diagnostics, commercial and clinical trials. When you talk about regions, it’s being sold both domestically and internationally.
We currently have a sole focus on the life science industry -- that’s really our main push right now. Certainly, one of the reasons we’ve been so strong in this market is we maintain that focus in life science, and we stay ahead of the curve.
I do think that having a sole focus on life science -- understanding the challenges and regulations faced by clients -- is key. The expertise we have in research and development and engineering talent allowed us to see market trends in advance, and allowed us to develop novel solutions to help our clients in a very strict regulatory landscape.
Tell me about your expansion into Franklin.
The company is currently in Holliston in two facilities, and is moving to Franklin, to a 237,000-square-foot facility. That will be our flagship manufacturing site and also will have core executive, research and development, and engineering staff and all of our product development team. It’s in the process now, so we’re going to gradually do it in phases over the next couple of quarters.
We’re consolidating into a single facility due to growth. [A facility] that would handle existing business and future expansion was really important to us. Phase two is taking place now -- we’re moving engineering and lab capacity.
What employment positions are you looking to fill?
At the Franklin facility, we’d be looking at production folks, engineering talent as well as business development talent. [In addition to Massachusetts], we’re in Laverne, Tenn., and in Reno, Nev.
We are also -- we have a partnership with Topa Thermal Packaging in the Netherlands. They are a licensed manufacturer of the KoolTemp brand but supply our mutual client base with products throughout Europe, Middle East, Africa and some parts of Asia.
We are exploring further expansion in 2017 in South America and Southeast Asia.
What will those expansions look like?
My guess is, we’ll make a decision, but we’re not going to do both paths in parallel. We’ll be exploring our priorities.
I can tell you -- the gel PCM product -- that was a multi-million dollar research and development and production effort. That whole manufacturing process has been designed at the Franklin facility.
How do you ensure quality?
We go beyond what’s required in a typical ISO environment. Our clients are often [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] regulated, so they're going to demand the highest controls and documentation from their supplier base. We encourage our customers to do onsite audits. Over 50 percent of our top clientele has conducted audits, and there are zero outstanding. Not what you'd think of for a packaging company has to meet, it’s the next step above.
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